Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Victorian workplaces, especially in the construction sector, have benefited from the introduction of the Victorian construction code. The industrial anarchy that characterised Victorian projects such as the notorious Wonthaggi plant has been removed. However, there is a very significant threat to productive and harmonious workplaces in Victoria. It is the CFMEU-inspired policy of Daniel Andrews to abolish Victoria's construction code. This is the code that upholds the rule of law and saves Victorian taxpayers from the billions of dollars of delays and blow-outs that plagued major projects under the last Labor government. The code even includes new drug and alcohol testing requirements to protect building workers and improve workplace safety, yet Labor's policy is to abolish that too. I wonder why. As former judge, Terence Cole, said this week:

Only a political party in thrall to the building unions would contemplate the state's building code.

Labor's policy is also to oppose the Commonwealth's building code, despite funding for major infrastructure projects being conditional on the code being applied—no code, no funding. So Labor threatens Victoria with a loss of billions of dollars for vital infrastructure projects. This is the cost to Victorians of Daniel Andrews' unseemly association with John Setka and the CFMEU. Daniel Andrews has not only outsourced his policy to the CFMEU; he has now even outsourced his costings to the CFMEU's accountants—and if he is elected on Saturday, he will outsource the rest of government policy to them, as well. (Time expired)